The best way to deal with unemployment in high-priority neighbourhoods is not to invest in jobs but to move tenants from city-owned housing into private rental stock and subsidize their rent, mayoral candidate Rob Ford said in a Wednesday evening, Sept. 8 debate sponsored by the Toronto Board of Trade.
"My heart bleeds for these people," Ford said during the debate on prosperity held at the MaRS Centre in downtown Toronto. "Instead of giving more affordable housing - why don't we subsidize people's rent?"When asked to elaborate on how putting people into subsidized market rent would improve the local economy in poorer neighbourhoods, Ford explained: "As you know, a lot of people unfortunately that live in government housing are unemployed. They wake up in the morning - their neighbour is unemployed, their other neighbour is unemployed. You go into a private apartment building and their neighbours are all working. You want go create an atmosphere where there's a positive environment."Ford drew chuckles from the business audience at that point, during what was otherwise a comparatively staid debate. The five leading candidates for mayor - Ford, George Smitherman, Joe Pantalone, Sarah Thomson and Rocco Rossi - generally found consensus on the need for Toronto to more effectively promote the city region and end parochialism, and the general need to make Toronto a more business-friendly environment.They were also asked to speak about areas of innovation at the city - and unusually for a debate, asked to identify what they thought were the best innovations in the past.Sarah Thomson singled out the city's environmental initiatives."I look at what David Miller has done for the environment in making Toronto into the city that people look to for ideas on how to deal with the environment," she said.George Smitherman singled out the city's 311 service, and the work the city has been doing to revitalize Regent Park, and Artscape, "as a model for housing artists so they're not starving artists is very innovative."Pantalone, who has been running a campaign supporting the direction the city has been taking the past seven years, said Toronto has experienced "a lot of innovation," but singled out green initiatives. Rossi agreed with Smitherman that Regent Park's revitalization was a positive innovation - but quipped, "Most of the innovation has happened outside City Hall."Ford, meanwhile, would have none of it."It's unfortunate, and not to sound pessimistic, but there is very little innovation in Toronto," he said. "When you look back 20 years, I'd have to say Etobicoke Mayor Doug Holyday was innovative for contracting out garbage collection."